The Walk by Shahdad Badiehneshin

Studio Hybrids Project Book 2021-2022

Mentors: Riet Eeckhout + Mira Sanders Shahdad Badiehneshin

Emotion in Motion - Poetic Instant

By reading the text of “Gaston Bachelard Poetic Instantant Metaphysical Instant”, the idea of Poetic Instant caught my eye. The moment of being and not being. I further explored the idea with footage of atomic blasts from the movie “Trinity And Beyond The Atomic Bomb Movie (1995)”.

I then tried to make a clip from three different clips, trying to show the feeling of two main protagonists in the movie “Drive (2011)” during the elevator scene. It was interesting to see how their feelings change during a short amount of time, resulting in a very different spatial situation.

Journey - Memory, Moment, Unknown

After looking for a way to express my own story, I decided to show past, present and future with different clips. To show where I’m from, where I am now and where I am going. By using metaphors, I tried to express my story, and the uncertain future using spatial compositions. 5

Exit Reality - Escapism, Memories

With further investigation, I realized the thing that I’m looking for is escapism, and tried to show them in clips from my own reality, with a literal and to the point approach. The person uses different entertainment methods to cover the reality that is pushed to them constantly, and ultimately surrenders to the facts.

The mouse icon represents the person which interacts with different media. The movements of the mouse are curated in a way that shows excitement, frustration and interaction at each point.

Memories, Filters, Point of View

To further develop the idea of personal memories effecting the point of view of each individual, I decided to model the 3D scape of different cities and mash them together, while generating iconic images using photogrammetry, which represent strong memories. To enhance the idea of memories, models with low poly were extracted from Google Earth using RenderDocs, and used to create the landscape. By using these images in the background, the space created represents a unique scenery. 8

These big images have reduced poly count which further represents the idea of corrupted memories. The photos on the bottom right side shows the texture files of these images

After getting the comment of “memories aren’t all blurry, and some of them have depth and quality to them”, I decided to extract the point clouds from different city blocks of the 3D model of the city of Ghent, remove the identity of each point and rebuild the mesh model from the points. So these points represent both the new mesh and the old buildings. The results of the experiment is on the bottom right image.

Shifting Shapes Models from different memories were captured from Google Earth, Videos, Voices and Pictures. All of these models were turned into Point Cloud models.

Using processing platform and OpenGL, a script for morphing was created to morph these “memories” into each other, creating in-between shapes. Below: Gravesteen morphs into Buckingham Palace

Below: Valiasr street market morphs into Patong walking street

A Visit of Childhood

On further exploring the idea of “Memories”, I visited my childhood home in my mind, and tried to model it according to my memories. This was done explicitly without looking at any photos or references, so the memory becomes intact. This building had a light brown brick as material and was 5 storey tall. It was an old luxury guest house for foreigners inside the city. Some bold elements are the teal water based cooling units on the facade and the rooftop. Since this old building had an old fan-coil system and it wasn’t sufficient for the new residents, everyone used these “Coolers”. There were shops and a restaurant underneath the building, and the restaurant had giant fans which exhausted food fumes out.

This is my interpratation of me from the building. The kid version of me saw this building as a giant playground. It had at least 10 storeys, and had two giant pitfalls at the top. It you were brave enough, you could climb up the roof and have a greater view. This building almost looked like a car engine, with its cooling units and fans. Or giant micro-organism, with a lot of public and semi-public units inside.

Start of the Walk After all these experiments, I decided to work on a city scape level. The city that I lived most of my life in, Tehran. To achieve that, I needed input data.

Google Earth and Google streets are not an option there, since Iran and USA are not the best friends. Access to 3D data of the city is also impossible. I was desperately trying find a data base

of the city, until I found a video on Youtube. It’s from the channel Iran Tourism, and it’s a person walking with a 4K camera in one of my favourite streets of Tehran, Karimkhan Zand Street. I was able to extract frames from that video and use that image data in a process called Photogrammetry. In this process,

a 3D model is generated from a series of pictures in AGISOFT METASHAPE application. Whenever there is a loss of data, the software fills in the gaps, sometimes creating dream-like shapes.

Refining the Walk

The next step was to clean up the model of extra noises and redundant data. This enhanced the experience significantly. Model started to take shape and act as a good base for some content.

The addition of sound to the video greatly enhanced the experience. It animated the inanimate objects of this world. Some preliminary interaction with objects were added, but these interactions lacked the quality that one would get while doing

the walk in real world.

Adding Cultural Content

For the test jury week, I added a real memory in form of a conversation in the animation. It helped the other viewers understand a part of an Iranian culture. It was advised to me that this is the thing that empowers the message of my video and I should add a lot more of these interactions in the animation.

I had a metaphorical shape moving throughout the space, but was advised to avoid metaphors and conceptual shapes, and instead try to show real things, just like the tree that the shopkeeper had planted all those years ago

The Walk The Walk, at it’s final form, contains lots of content about the daily conversations and dilemmas of Tehran’s citizens. The socio-political architecture of the city is as important as it’s urban

architecture. We witness semi-order semi-chaos throughout. Some people try their best to be respectful to others, and some use the chaos to achieve their own goals

Massive propaganda media is seen throughout the city, but for an outsider who is brave enough to walk in Tehran, there is another reality. Most of ordinary people don’t have any problems with foreign governments, but their own

Of course there are some individuals who use this state of chaos to their own benefit, blaming the government for their behaviour.

In the animation, we see some objects that are more defined than others, fragments of memories that have been imprinted in the author’s mind

These objects have become the main principles of the author for his later designs

Security metal meshes that have not been opened for a long time, suggest a closed down business. Businesses that belonged to a time which everything was better

These metal meshes have become one of the main pieces of urban architecture of Tehran. I used these mesh surfaces to show the sense of depressed security

Speaking of urban architecture, motorcycles have become a piece of urban architecture and a nuisance for the pedestrians. Lack of public parking and dedicated spaces, result in countless motorcycles being parked in the walkways

Street art is sometimes utilized to display the dilamma of normal people. The infamous incident of plane PS752 is hinted in one of the graffitis. On 8 January 2020, the Boeing 737-800 operating the route of Tehran to Kyiv was shot down shortly after takeoff from Tehran

Imam Khomeini International Airport by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. All 176 passengers and crew were killed. This incident resulted protests all over Iran. Many citizens believe that the government used these people as a human barrier to avoid conflict with the USA.

Every year, many citizens migrate from Iran to achieve freedom, and they are willing to pay any price and overcome any hardship to achieve this

Some of them succeed to achieve freedom, and get a chance to make a better life for themselves

But their minds will always stay with their fellow countrymen who were left behind. The ones who are being oppressed and are used as bargaining chips, or being killed

It is quite a cold and scary season Seems like autumn is not going to budge from here Hey late-comer storm, shout! Hey cloud, cry! Hey spring, stand up!

“Ebrahim Monsefi”